Adventures with lightweight and minimalist software for Linux

jdkdrum: Limitations of the media

It’s rare that I have a program I can’t share properly because you can’t hear it. jdkdrum is one I can tell you about, but if you came here for an electrifying screenshot, you’ll be disappointed this time.

jdkdrum is a command-line drum synthesizer, and even though the files are all stamped with a date of 2003, it still amazingly works … with a little help from alsa-oss, of course. In short, just enter

aoss ./jdkdrum < drumbeat3

and you can get your groove on.😉

You’ll need to compile jdkdrum, which takes about 3 seconds, and then feed it drumbeat patterns or instruments. If your sound system is correctly configured, you’ll get the beginnings of your very own rave. Just add strobe lights.

For what it’s worth, jdkdrum has an “interactive” mode as well, which is really just its way of allowing you to feed it custom instruments or rhythms before it fires up. Look at the readme.txt file if you need examples of that.

Also, each “drumbeat” file is really just a flat text file with its rhythm written out, so you can use those as examples to build on.

jdkdrum was a pleasant little surprise, and if you’re one of those people inclined toward audio applications, you might have fun with this.